"Who Pays Taxes" - Tax Burden Gap

The Sacramento Bee is one of several newspapers writing about the California Budget Project's new "Who Pays Taxes in California?" report I wrote about yesterday.

They focus on a point made in the report that I did not address:

A new study by the Sacramento-based the California Budget Project -- called "Who Pays Taxes in California?" -- cites a wide tax burden gap between the poorest and wealthiest taxpayers, based on the percentage of income that goes toward income, sales, property and excise taxes.

For the poorest fifth of taxpayers, taxes amount to 11.7 percent of their average household budget of $11,000. On the flip side, the richest 1 percent, averaging $1.6 million in annual income, pay 7.1 percent for state taxes.

So the gap is in how much of one's income goes to the State. Kudos, though, to reporter Gilbert Chan for also citing a report issued this week by the Legislative Analysts Office,
"California's Tax System: A Primer":

Yet, these high-income taxpayers foot more of the income tax bill, according to a report issued Monday by the Legislative Analyst's Office. They account for about 5 percent of income tax returns, but pay 55 percent of the tax liability, or more than $27 billion in 2005-06.

Those earning $200,000 and more make up only 5% of taxpayers, yet they pay 55% of all taxes collected by the state. The LAO report goes on to say that those earing $50,000 or less make up 45% percent of taxpayers but pay only 6% of taxes collected.

Five percent pay 55%, and 45% pay 6% - isn't that also a "tax burden gap"?